


The USS Avenger

by LovingShadows



Category: Star Trek, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alien!Natasha, Avengers AU, I just really wanted this okay, I ran out of officers...., My First Fanfic, Past Abuse, Star Trek Universe, and then there was peter, idk what I was thinking, mentioned suicidal thoughts, so I made it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-21
Updated: 2013-08-24
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:21:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovingShadows/pseuds/LovingShadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whispers have been heard from deep space that a planet not under the protection of the Federation had been destroyed a deviant faction, the leader of which calls himself Thanos.  As reports come in that Thanos and his armada are heading toward Earth, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, the Admiralty commissions a new branch of Starfleet to intercept and stop Thanos before he reaches Federation Space.  The USS Avenger is commissioned and Admiral Fury has staffed it with the craziest mother fuckers he can think of, but will it be enough to keep Thanos at bay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It All Starts with Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, welcome and thank you for expressing interest in my humble little fic. I know how annoying long personal starting notes can be so I’ll make this quick. I am by no means an expert in anything I do, and I lack a beta reader, so if you find any mistakes please don’t hesitate to let me know (especially with my spelling…). Also, full rank names are an impressive mouthful to say out loud. My favorite being “master chief petty officer.” Enjoy and I hope to see you again!

Nick Fury knew what the promotion meant. It meant that his plan would need to be put into action soon. He's not going to lie to anyone, the entire thing is already staged. He and his team were efficient like that. It was just a waiting game now. How long would it take before the rest of the admiralty realized that they needed to act before it was too late.

The knock on his for was anticipated but still surprised him. He'd been anticipating the news for three weeks. He had almost started to believe that it was never going to happen.

“Enter,” he called steepling his fingers.

In through the door came three people. Vice Admiral Hill, his very favorite second in command. She had a frown on her face that told him everything he needed to know right at that moment. They were going to need the big guns. That wouldn’t be a problem though, Vice Admiral Maria Hill loves playing with the big guns.

Commodore Phil Coulson was a different matter all together. He was the people person. Fury and Hill both knew how to design something that theoretically would work, but Coulson was the person who would find the perfect people to get it done. Coulson's demeanor was frightening, almost nothing phased him or made him back down. He probably learned it from those two officers that were always lazing about with him. Or, quite possibly, he taught it to them. They were near inseparable now and Fury can't quite remember which one came first. 

The third was a messenger. The human himself wasn't important. Petty Officer Who's-Its. What was important was the PADD he held in his hands. The PADD that held formal orders. “In response to the destruction of the planet known as Titan, you are to move the Stratigic Homeworld Invasion, Enforcement and Logistic Defense from its status as dormant to active. This division is to—” Fury stood and copied the orders to another data solid, that was all he needed to know. There would be time to pick through the finer details of the orders later. 

He tossed the PADD back to the petty officer who have a sharp salute and scampered out of the Admiral's office. 

Fury handed Hill a new PADD. All the information they had collected about the set up for the SHIELD division command, ship, and crew, as well as additional information about the situation that was flying it's way away from Titan and toward Federation space.

Fury turned away from his desk, “Coulson, get me my ship.”

 

*****

 

Master Chief Petty Officer Virginia Potts most certainly did not jump when the PADD under her arm beeped with an incoming message. And she most certainly did not start to panic when she saw the ID read “Commodore Tightwad.” One of these days Tony’s antics were going to get him into trouble. Assuming he wasn’t already and this was to inform her that her boss had been thrown into a pit of Cardasian blood worms and there was nothing to be done to save him.

She glanced around her. For being half finished, there weren’t a lot of places that didn’t look like a warzone. She tucked herself into a corner where the sounds of cutting and welding seemed, well, less loud.

“Potts,” she answered watching the blank face of a Commodore Coulson. 

“Pepper.” She relaxed, first names were good. “I was expecting Stark.”

“So was I, Phil, but the man has a way of refusing to be contacted. In spectacular fashions. I walked into dry dock this morning to find his PADD hanging from the door jam with a paper note that said ‘if you have coffee I’ll find you.’”

He gave her a look. Amused, though she knew he’d never admit it. “And how is that promise holding out?”

She held up the huge red and gold thermos that was her boss’s favorite. “Nothing yet.”

Phil hmm’ed a moment before he shifted back into Ranking Officer Mode. “Chief, you said dry dock? As far as I’m aware the Lt. Commander was not requested for any of the ships in need of repairs. And any ships that would be commissioned haven’t been commissioned yet. So, what are you two doing in dry dock?”

Pepper stiffened. Shit. “Well, Sir.” She was at a loss for words. “There’s paperwork,” she finished lamely.

“There’s paperwork? For what?” Coulson’s face actually looked surprised for once. Which wasn’t unwarranted. The last time Stark did his own paperwork he was hiding the fact that he was dying.

“I’m not exactly sure, sir. I woke up and there was a stack of papers with a note that read ‘Submitted. Please file.’ I’m starting to think he’s hired some poor cadet to leave all these notes around and do his dirty work. And you know when Stark does his own paperwork, no one can read his chicken scratch, and when they figure it out it’s already too late to put a hold on the parts he wants. We’re just lucky he’s asking for parts instead of disassembling the other ships.”

“The sad thing is that you’re right. Alright Chief, call me the second you find him.”

“Yessir.” She sighed as she tucked Tony’s PADD back under her arm and began to pick her way through the work crews toward the bridge. 

The only reason StarFleet had kept her around, much less awarded her the highest rank given to a enlisted, was because they thought she had Lt. Commander Anthony Stark even semi trained. If only they knew how much of a lie that really was. Tony wasn’t actually that hard to get along with. Yes, he was a super major pain in the ass, but, he was also brilliant at what he did. Pepper loved to see that brilliance and the determination he worked with when he found a problem that needed fixing. Well, the problems that weren’t so mindless even Pepper could do them. Those problems just pissed him off that they had called him down when their CEO should have been able to fix it.

The bridge was in disarray. Well, that was to be expected. It was also empty except for the Commander, which means he’d been there long enough to get pissed at everyone else working and send most of them back home crying. 

The officer in questions was currently buried to the hips under the tactical console, connecting wires that the other crewmen could have been doing if they hadn’t been all chased away. He seemed to perk up when heard Pepper enter.

He sniffed. “Is that coffee? Oh heavens above that’s coffee. Good morning, Pepper. It’s so good to have you aboard the Royal Stark Ship Iron Lady. May I have my coffee now?”

Okay, so she had him a little trained.

Much to the disappointment of the engineer, she held out the PADD instead of the coffee. “You have a call from Commodore Coulson to return first. And you know they’ll never let you name her that.”

“One can always hope. You should say hello to the computer system. JARVIS say hello to the Chief.”

Pepper wasn’t surprised Stark had the voice integration for the computer system hooked up already. If he didn’t get “intelligent conversation” while working he claims he’d go mad. As if he weren’t already.

“Hello, Chief Potts,” came the clearly British accented vocal interface. Well, that was a new one.

“Tony,” her voice held all the warning he was going to get. That was not regulation.

“No, Pep, they are not leaving me behind on this one. The ship won’t run without me. I’ve made sure of that. Right JARVIS?”

“Indeed, Sir.” Oh good lord, even the computer knew how to sound tired of Tony’s antics. Wait…

“It’s an AI?” Ships computers were generally artificial intelligences. Unless you were Tony Stark. Then those computer AIs they put in the other ships were crap and only his upgraded systems would do. And that’s what got him into trouble.

“Yup,” Tony sounded way more proud of himself than he should be. “Can I have my coffee now?”

“Call first.” Pepper pointed to the PADD that was lying on the console. The PADD he had deliberately left behind.

He grumbled as he picked up the thing and punched buttons until the screen read “Calling: Commodore Kill-Joy.”

 

*****

 

Dr Banner ran his hands through his hair again. He hated the city. Half of the time he wonders what even made him come to San Francisco in the first place.  
His office in the high rise that forms the Starfleet Academy serves as his reminder. When he joined Starfleet he wanted to be a relief doctor. Unfortunately, when he was placed on a ship that spent weeks on end drifting out in space without seeing a blue sky, Bruce Banner was prone to cabin fever. The result of which tended to be violent outbursts. 

He had hated it there. Each wave of hate and rage reminded him off his father. How easy it would be to slip into the same pattern of the man who destroyed his life from the very start.

Bruce leaned back in his chair and sighed. He had to face reality. He really wasn’t that good of a medical doctor. Oh sure, he was competent enough to have gotten his medical degree and to be employed by Starfleet, but all he really did in his office way up in the sky was patch up cadets who picked the wrong fight. There was a crash in a fighters routine once, that had been exciting. But all in all, his life was pedestrian.  
He had to admit though, past of him loved it. He never felt normal growing up. An alcoholic father who had gotten his pleasure from beating him and who had killed his mother in one of his rages had chased off any sense of normalcy he had as a child. The easy life here was what that part of him needed. He loved to sit in his office and do paperwork, take a stroll during lunch and ready in the gardens, teach hopeful young cadets the effects over exposure to radiation on the bodies of different species and how to treat them.

The other side of him was bored with all that. He had a doctorate in nuclear physics. He could make a dilithium engine in his sleep, and he wanted to put it to his use. He wouldn't though, the sensible side to him always stomped out the adventure now that he knew what it was like.  
He hadn’t started in Starfleet. He noticed how his life was taking the same roads as his father had taken. He needed to get out of a lab developing bombs and new sources of power. He had jumped on the quickest way to stop being a destroyer and start being a healer, and that meant enrollment into the Starfleet medical program.

There was a knock on the door frame. Well, afternoon breaks never lasted forever. 

He turned to see a young woman in his door. Her dark gray offices uniform fit her like a glove. Her bright red hair was pulled back into a bun showing off the points to the top of her ears. Vulcan, then, but that didn't exactly feel right. Romulan?

She stepped into the office and saluted.

“What can I do for you...” a quick glance at the pips that framed her throat, “Lieutenant?”

“Lieutenant N'Tasha Romanov.”

Well, the name wasn’t going to be much help then.

“I have new orders for you, sir.” Lt Romanov approached the desk and held out the PADD.

“Oh?” Banner already didn't like the sound of it. “And what are the new orders?”

“You are being assigned to the USS Avenger as chief medical officer. Congratulations on your assignment.”

“I um, I don’t do well in space. The admiralty knows that. Why...?” Banner began to worry at the cuffs of his med blues.

The lieutenant have him a look. “I hate to burst your bubble, sir, but Starfleet operates in space.”

“Does it look like my office is in space to you, Lieutenant? I’d like to keep it this way.”

“No, sir and yes, sir. Your orders still require your presence in two days time. If you do not attend the crew development briefing, I have permission to taze you and drag your unconscious body to the meeting.” The smile that played across the face of the Volcan/Romulan/Russian was quite possibly the most unsettling thing Bruce Banner had seen in his adult life.

 

*****

 

The door in the back of his lecture hall squeaked open. Lieutenant Thor Odinson was about to rip the cadets who thought it was okay to walk into a astrogation thirty minutes after class started a new one. He frowned slightly at the officer grays that slipped through the door. There aren't supposed to be class inspections until halfway through the semester. Sometimes Terran time messed with Thor a bit, but he was pretty sure he was supposed to have at least five more weeks of class before that time.

He gave them a slight nod and went back to his lecture. By the end, at last three of his students were trying not to look like they were trying not to cry in the middle of the hall, about half were looking from their notes to the holo like they had lost all hope, and the two officers in the back were chuckling softly at each other.  
Students began rushing out, clumsy grabbing a data solid containing star charts and their next assignment. The gray uniform making his way toward the front of the room stood out among the cadet reds.

“Ensign Clint Barton,” he introduced himself with a lazy salute and a sly grin followed by an offered hand to shake.

“Are you not a bit old for an ensign?” Odinson spoke, but his voice carries and many of the cadets stole glances at the officers.  
Barton winced. “Make good decisions kids,” he barked as the rest of the cadets ran for it. “I hope you aren’t too attached to teaching, Lieutenant.” He handed over a PADD. “Welcome to the crew, sir.”

“We are to be brothers in arms?” Odinson quickly read over the orders on the PADD. 

“Yeah, something like that.” Ensign Barton leaned over and snatched an extra data solid. “I’ll see you around Lt.” The ensign stocked back toward the back of the hall. The other officer was scowling at him, but Odinson was not to surprised by that. It was hard not to frown at the man as he retreated out of the room.  
Something did not seemed to sit right about the Ensign standing in front of him. The feeling would pass. Thor was not one who liked working with comrades who followed orders to a T. There was little fun in that. 

Thor missed his crew back home, and he missed running around their little corner of the galaxy stopping trouble in his father’s name. To have a crew again would be exciting. He had never gotten too attached to teaching, it was very hard to make friends of the people he met as a professor. With a crew again he could relax with the people he saw every day. And make them teach him all the fun Terran games.

 

He had been recruited as an act of “good faith” between his father and the Federation. Thor knew that the Federation wanted to keep an eye on the one leader who could take on a small Klingon squad and still go looking for trouble. Not that time in Thor’s life had passed though. Being at the Starfleet Academy had sobered him up. He had learned here what his father was trying to teach him back at home. He knew what was asked of leaders now, and how he would become the leader of his planet when he returned home and his father retired.  
He loved his home. And he loved his sense of adventure. He missed space, and he was going back.

 

*****

 

“What exactly are you planning to do with that, Barton?” Coulson asked as they left the building. 

“I’m not exactly sure yet,” Barton slipped the data solid into the slot of his PADD and whistled at the star charts that were pulled up. “Those were first years?” He asked as flipped through the assignment. “He’s got some high standards.”

“It’s as if you didn’t trust my judgment, Barton, after all this time.” It was a tease, a light one, like the nudges he sees cadets giving to one another on campus. 

“I do trust you boss, I just wanted to see for myself.”  
They walked in silence. They weren’t the best at communicating with one another when it wasn’t in some code or another. Coulson didn’t mind all that much, it gave him time to think and reflect. 

He remembered the first time he met Barton. Coulson had been an ensign on a rescue mission at Astral V. A generator had exploded when a traveling entertainment ship had been passing by. In their hurry to escape what they had done, a young Clint Barton was left behind in the rubble of the generator. Barton had fought back, refusing to go with those “Federation attack dogs.” Coulson remembered talking him down so that a nurse could get close enough to inject a hypo into his leg to calm him down. Barton wouldn’t trust anyone on the ship as they headed back to Earth, and there was little surprise in that. Curiously though, he seemed to respond better when Coulson was there, so they spent very little time apart. When they reached Earth and the meek little boy had asked what he would have to do to stay, Coulson’s heart broke a little, and he would never tell anyone that. Never. He managed to get the boy enrolled into the Academy, flying through classes. His tactical skills were through the roof, he never missed a shot on a ship in simulators. Real combat situations, as it turned out, didn’t work well with Barton. His first scuffle in space landed him a demotion back to ensign and back into Coulson’s hands.  
Not that Coulson minded, at all. At the time, Coulson was the Lt. commander in charge of security on the USS Ranger. He kept Barton with him and slowly, Barton began climbing the ranks again.

Until he found the most interesting creature either of them had ever seen. A young redhead woman had stowed away aboard the Ranger and had managed to cause quite a bit of havoc as she avoided the security crews who were looking for her. Barton found her first. And, beyond all rhyme or reason, he hid her away in air ducts in his quarters. 

When they found her, Coulson had been pissed. Both were taken into custody and Barton refused to leave her side. The trial came and went and Barton explained to the tribunal that he saw the look in her eyes that he used to have. The look of a frightened child who had nowhere to go and no one to trust. Barton, through some miracle and exploitation of every connection Coulson had, managed to not be kicked out of Starfleet and had been demoted back to ensign.

After that, Starfleet Academy gained a cadet N’Tasha Romanov. She flew through language classes like it was what she was born to do. She had an affinity for Russian, Romulan, and Vulcan. She could talk her way into trouble and right back out, like she had never even been there. She was the only other person Coulson had ever seen that could keep Barton in check when he wasn’t around. She graduated and was assigned wherever Coulson and Barton where. The three of them became inseparable. 

Coulson managed to become captain, and almost gave it way. He never liked being all the stress of high volume commands. He was promoted off captain to commodore until they found a position in the Admiralty he could fill. When the offer for vice admiral came in he politely turned it down. He thrived in the ambiguous position of Commodore. No one quite knew what he was supposed to be doing, and he flourished in the gray area that he surrounded himself and his two subordinates in.

No one’s quite sure how it happened, but the three of them became attached to Admiral Fury and his not active project of creating defense teams needed to protect Federation space from as of then, unidentified and unknown threats.  
No one bothered to try to promote Barton again.  
Coulson was pulled from his thoughts when the door he was reaching for jumped out of his reach. It was being held open by his favorite red head. Except Coulson didn’t have favorites. Not officially.

“Tasha,” he said in way of greeting. She didn’t smile back exactly, but she looked less fierce.

“Did you boys have fun?” she asked looking pointedly at the PADD Barton had yet to put down.

Phil began to wind down. He had a switch he could flip that moved him from Commodore Coulson to just plain Phil.

“Clint’s looking for the answers to life in the assignments Odinson gave his first years.”

Tasha smirked a little bit at that. “Are you sure, boss? That kind of face normally says he’s playing connect the dots. I bet he’s making a pony with the stars.”

Clint looked up and glared. “Rude, as always.” He gave N’Tasha a peck on the cheek to say his feelings weren’t hurt too bad. “I have found three locations on each star map where I could take out the entire enemy fleet in at most two rounds of photon torpedoes given the space drift in the asteroid fields.” He flopped onto the small sofa the three of them had crammed into the side of Phil’s office. 

Comfortable silence is broken by the ping from N’Tasha’s PADD. “Sir,” she said, her voice portrayed the professionalism that her body did not slumped on the sofa next to Clint. “The Commander has reached space dock. He will arrive at the Academy space port in two hours. We should meet him there.”

 

*****

 

“Look, sir, I just spent a week crammed onto a tinny transport ship with my team of overly energetic scientists.” Commander Rogers ran his hands over this face again, man was he tired. “The only thing I would like to be doing right now is going back to my apartment and taking a five year nap. Anyway, I just got back from a three year cultural observation mission, I am entitled to at the very least six months leave.” He had had nothing to do for the past three years expect wallow in his boredom. Babysitting scientists was not what he expected when he took the promotion to commander. He wanted to go home and soak in a hot bath until all the ice finally finished melting for his joints. 

The four of them were squeezed into a small briefing room.

“I understand that there are times when we need a break and I completely understand that you want the time to relax, but damn it sir, there is no time for rest.”  
The room stilled at the outburst. All eyes feel to the ensign with a temper. No wonder, Rogers noted to himself. No one would want to work with him enough to want to promote him.

“Sir, a lot has changed in the three years you have been incommunicado.” The redhead, on the other hand, seemed vicious, just the type of lieutenant he would have loved to bring along when he was running intel along the Klingon-Federation Neutral Zone. “About a year ago, we learned of an individual who was collecting an armada of ships. The Federation sent interception to open negotiations with the individual who we learned called himself Thanos. What we learned was that Thanos is mentally unstable—”

“A couple torpedoes short of a phaser bank.”

The lieutenant – Romanov, her remembered – scowled, barely noticeable, but there. “Yes, thank you, Ensign Barton. He told our representative that what he was doing, he was doing for love. He said he fell in love with a creature named 'Death.' Death had demanded that he show his love with a display of power. Thanos then left his planet for approximately three Earth months to collect a group of thirteen more ships. Yesterday, stardate 45523.2 Thanos and his armada returned to and destroyed most of the surface of his homeworld, Titan. The negotiation and first contact teams were well on their way back to Federation space when Thanos's armada turned in what we assume is pursuit."

Rogers had taken a seat during her explanation. Damn, he needed sleep not discussing the impending doom of the Federation. 

“We welcomed him to the Federation. He knows we’re here.”

“He’s coming after us to hang our destruction at the feet of his lover.”

Rogers studied each of their faces. “And what am I supposed to be able to do about it?”

It seemed like the other side of the room let out a sigh of relief at Rogers’s question. Both Offers sat on either side of their Commodore. Rogers blinked at the man, he had almost forgotten he was there.

“We’ve commissioned a ship.” Commodore Coulson pulled a stack of PADDs from his bag. “And we’ve put together a crew. We had hoped that you’d be her captain. I can tell how much you’ve missed the action of being in space.”

“How?” Rogers picked up the personnel files and studied each of the would be senior officers. “You’ve only just met me.”

“I remember what it looks like.” He must have seen the frown that worked its way to Rogers’s face because he asked, “something wrong?”

“Do you have transfer orders for me?”

Romanov stood a little to reach the PADD into his hand.

“Okay. Okay, fine. Just tell me, how am I supposed to run a ship without a science officer.”

Much to Steve’s delight the three faces in front of him turned blank as they reached for their PADDs back.

When he left Coulson was scolding the ensign. Steve had to smile as he closed the door on a “hey science was never my thing!” as a means of defense.

Yeah, sure he’d captain a ship. But now, right now, he needed a nap.

 

*****

 

Peter Parker wasn’t really sure how he ended up this far. It seemed like he kept being promoted though accidents. His promotion from ensign to lieutenant had been because he was bitten by a mysterious radioactive spider that was found on Taluna VII. The bite had left him disoriented for a couple hours before he realized that all his senses were overactive. The fun only lasted a week until he was left with a fever that no one expected him to survive. 

He wasn’t really sure how he was promoted to lieutenant commander, only over thanking an admiral via vidcom and receiving his extra pip from the commander of starbase 187 where he was stationed. When he had asked how even, he got a pat on his back and an “I don’t know, son, I don’t know.”

Parker was under the impression that the Admiralty had forgotten who he was again. He didn’t mind so much. He love his research into the samples that starships brought with them on their stop at the starbase. Sometimes he even dreamed of jumping on one of the starships leaving with them. He loved what he did. He loved his lab, and his staff, and his experiments, but he wanted more. He wanted to be on those ships. He wanted to be the one discovering all the things ships brought back to him.

Until the time when he had a ship, he was perfectly happy in his lab. He had most of the cool new toys, and what he didn’t have he and Gwen would try to build it from spare parts in their free time.

He was surprised when is vidcom pinged and he answered a call from an Admiral while transferring blood samples into different materials. He was testing coagulation rates, looking for additional proteins that he could send to the medical research team stationed on the base. 

He almost dropped the viles when he saw the fierce looking Admiral on the other side of the vidcom.

“Lt Commander Parker,” everything the man said sounded like a threat, and Peter shivered a bit. He had learned to keep his mouth shut when he talked to Admiralty. He never talked himself into trouble but it seemed like they were chiding him when he spoke too much. Like none of them recognized or thought he deserved the position of lt commander. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he did.

“Pack your bag, son. You’re being reassigned.”

“Um, sir,” Peter was confused to say the least but he had experiments. “What am I supposed to do with my lab, sir? These experiments are time sensitive I can’t just leave them here.”

There was that look. The look that told Peter that everyone though he was still a child. And while, yes, he was the youngest lt commander in the entirety of Starfleet, he didn’t need to be constantly reminded of that fact. 

“Well,” said the scary admiral, “you have two hours to figure that out. You leave on the Marvel at that time. We will see you on Earth in four days.”

“Earth? Earth is 7 days away at max warp. May I ask, sir, what this is about?”

“You’re being assigned to a ship, son. And you’ll get here in four. Fury out.”

Peter almost smashed into Gwen in his hurry to escape the lab.

“Gwen! Great you know everything I’m doing. I need you to close out my experiments and send me the reports. I’m not exactly sure where I’m going but send them.” 

He was halfway down the corridor before he heard her yell, “where are you going?”

“I’m getting a ship!” he called back as he rounded the corner into the turbolift to crew quarters. How was he going to pack all his stuff in two hours?

 

*****

 

Fury stood in front of the fleet admirals. These were the most powerful people in Starfleet and he held no reservations in telling them were all dumb as hell.

All five fleet admirals frowned at his crew roster and flipped.

Hill and Coulson stood at his back. He didn’t need the support, but it was nice to have it.

Admiral Durgan dropped the PADD he was looking at onto the table. “This is your fantastic crew, Nick? They are a group of miscreants and washouts. The reason they are not on a ship already is because they don’t play well with others. There is no way this is going to work.

Fury opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off with a hand from Admiral Johnson. “We assumed there would be something like this, Nick. I can say we are a little disappointed, but not surprised. In anticipation we’ve put together a crew manifest for you. Take some time, look it over. I’m sure you’ll see the reason we selected this crew.”

He glanced through the names, this was a joke. Reed Richards? Seriously? What was he going to do? Talk Thanos to death and then ask for a blood sample?  
Fury had had enough. “Sirs, I did not come here to ask your permission. I came here to tell you my intentions. My orders said that I am to run the SHIELD department ‘as I see fit.’ The crew I have assembled is a bunch of overgrown children, I’ll give you that, but when they are needed they will come through for us. You didn’t choose me to run this because you thought I was sane or made logical decisions. I make gut decisions, and more often than not, they work. Now if you still have a problem with my crew you’re going to have to suck it up. They are the crew of the Avenger. And they are going to save the galaxy.”


	2. Meet and Greet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, my chapters are going to be a little shorter than 5k each time. I just kinda wanted an epic total introduction and it ended up being that monster of a thing. We'll get one or two POVs per chapter yeah? Okay.
> 
> Tags are updated as I go. That being said, please be aware there are mentions of past abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Tony did not want to be sitting in that room. He wanted to be in the dry dock working on his baby. But Pepper had pulled him out of bed this morning and unceremoniously tossed him into the shower without even a whiff of coffee. She had marched Tony to the waiting hands of Romanov and Barton, be she had scurried off the her “real job” in the personnel and records building. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t half an hour early.

Sometimes that woman made no sense to him. She had graduated Harvard with a degree in business. The top ten percent of her class. And here she was enlisted in Starfleet because Tony couldn’t keep his act together. She could be doing anything else in the world and she was sitting behind Tony in the first meet and greet of his new shipmates. Tony knew her business sense. She could outplay and bankrupt the entire Ferengi civilization with her eyes closed, that’s how good she was. 

She worked Tony with an iron fist too. Always sending him reminders when she was not in the same vicinity as he was. She was more than Tony’s personal assistant, and sometimes it was hard to remember that. But, even when she was not around him he’d get short messages from her.

Did you eat today, Tony?  
Remember to get some sleep.  
Play nice with Admiral Rocha.  
Pay attention during the meeting.

Tony groaned from the boredom he was feeling. Around now he would start his normal game of “hit the target” with Barton. Barton normally carried around small pieces of something for him to toss around, sometimes it would be dry cereal or bolts from Tony’s workshop. But no matter where Tony was or where Barton was, he would always make the shot. Barton was a god like that. The man loved shooting and no matter what it was he was shooting, he always hit his target. Even those old projectile weapons that used to kill people all the time. 

Tony started to pull a blank holo from the screen of his PADD. If he had had an empty mug of coffee, he’d be using that for aim. But with the lack there of he’d use a holo target and catch whatever Barton was throwing. Well, most of the time.

An stylist popped him on the shoulder followed by a “No, Stark.” N’Tasha. Her aim wasn’t as good as Barton’s, but it seemed that instead of going on dates like normal people, they went and learned how to be freaking scary. Those two were a piece of work.

Tony grumbled and pulled up old project schematics to keep himself occupied.

The door opened and closed. Tony glanced up. The man who stood in the doorway was by no means unattractive. Broad, square shoulders, thin waist and flat tummy all drastically shown off in his officers grays. His narrow hips showed his true structure was not made to be as built as he is. But there was something about his face that Tony put Tony off.

The dynamic duo only nodded at the newcomer, so Tony figured he was fine to go back to his schematics and try to salvage the rest of the project that someone in his research department screwed up.

It wasn’t long after that the door admitted two other people. The first was a large buffed out blond guy. The cape that he wore was the only thing that identified him as a non-terran humanoid. Often Starfleet let individuals of outside cultures wear certain materials that are significant to their culture. That cape though, that cape was ridiculous. 

The smaller man who walked in straight behind him looked meek and uncomfortable walking into the room. He wore his med blues and stood out from the other officer grays like a sore thumb. His hair was messy and mousy and his eyes looked tired.

“Brothers!” the first one boomed. There was really no other to describe it. Tony felt the voice in his bones. It was unsettling. “It is good to meet everyone. I am Thor Odinson of Asgard. I would like to welcome my you as my brothers-in-arms so that we may protect the lives of our loved ones. I have brought supplies for our Oath Ceremony.”

The room stayed silent and staring at Thor. Thor looked around the room clearly expecting some form of enthusiasm from them but only receiving blank faces in return.

Clint broke the silence. “I don’t know Tasha, are you sure we made the right choice with him? He just didn’t pull the ‘blood oath’ card and he is too lax on his students. I’d like to pull from a group that can maybe actually fly the ships that they assign in their homework.”

“Or who doesn’t wear their mothers drapes for a cape.” Tony inwardly kicked himself. He should really learn to keep his stupid mouth shut.

“Are you implying that I am not capable of navigating space well enough to teach the young cadets under my care?” Thor looms over Clint who hasn’t so much as looked up from his PADD.

N’Tasha had backed away from Clint, Tony could tell she didn’t mind the arguing, just as long as she didn’t get in the swing of things. 

Tony felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Mr Skinny Hips. “You know on Asgard, capes are used to signify status in the military. The cape that Odinson is wearing—”

And that was all Tony remembered before realizing that room had broken into chaos.

Everyone seemed to be shouting to be heard above the boom of Thor. Thor and Barton were shouting over the use of effective flying during combat in debris fields. Tony seemed to be having a battle of wits with Shoulders about the function of a ship and her crew.

Tony vague registered the door sliding open again until a large voice boomed “SILENCE!” The room went silent except for N’Tasha’s soothing voice coming from where the doctor stood with a phaser pointed to the room at large.

Tony stared with the rest of them. Well, when the hell had that happened?

“Everyone have a seat.” Fury moved further into the room, giving a small nod to the still muttering N'Tasha. Hill and Coulson followed behind paying little attention to the scene in the corner of the room.

The doctor looked scared. His eyes were unfocused, as if he were seeing something somewhere else or from a different time. His hand shook slightly as he focused on a target that Tony was pretty sure wasn’t in the room. What had messed the doc up so much.

Tony threw a look to Fury and moved slightly toward his PADD laying abandoned on the table from his argument with– oh hell, he didn’t even know the guy’s name yet. 

Fury nodded in return. They both knew Tony could overload the phaser with a his handy dandy bag of gadgets. He set to work writing the program to give his little gadget the right kind of output power to sufficiently knock out the phaser for long enough for N’Tasha to disarm him.

Tony reached into his bag. He pulled out his comm disrupter. The dilithium crystal conductor would be perfect. 

 

*****

 

Bruce was lost. He heard the arguing and the yelling. Just like it had been so long ago. Back in a world where arguments meant bruises and silent crying where he wouldn’t be found.

The yelling. All the yelling. Bruce saw his face in each of the arguing people.

But he also saw his mother’s. She was a victim, a martyr to protect her son from her raging alcoholic husband. 

He knew what he had to do this time. He was not the poor scared boy who let his father beat his mother to death. This time he would protect her. This time he would kill that evil man the first chance he could get.

But why were there so many of them?

And then she was there. Like sleep after a long day, she was beside him whispering words of comfort. He could never tell was she was saying, but her tone was soothing. It made him want to crawl into her arms and cry. He would keep her where he could protect her this time.

Something didn’t feel right. The woman beside him, the owner to that soothing voice, her hair spilled red around her shoulders, and her ears pointed at the top like an alien. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t right.

And then it didn’t matter anymore. The phaser was no longer in his hands. Seven pairs of eyes peered cautiously toward him. They were trying to give him some privacy while making sure the situation was clear.

Bruce was coming back to himself. His hands dropped and he felt all the will leave him again.

Romanov caught him under the arm as he slumped toward the wall, and dragged him out of the room. The door closed behind them and clarity hit him like Klingon K’t’inga. 

He started to shake. He could have killed them all. This was why he was no good on ships. Why didn’t anyone else see that?

But the girl was there. And she hummed slightly as she reached up to him. She threaded her hand into the hair at the back of his head and pulled him close.

Bruce melted. That small gesture was all he need. He buried his head in her shoulder.

“This is why I'm no good for the ship,” he said to her shoulder after a time. He had calmed down but didn't want to move yet. He was aware of how much the position was hurting his neck. “I freak out and then I see her, and I don't want it to happen again.”

She squeezed and stepped away. Each of them moved to roll out the muscles that tightened from holding the position for too long.

“And that's why I want you on the ship”

He just stares at her.

She smiled back at him. Her smiles were small and hinted at being sad, but they made her look younger and just a little less scary. “You’ll be our doctor, Bruce. You will be the one who needs to fight to keep us alive. God knows Tony is going to need it. I believe in you. You don’t need to protect us. You need to save us. And you don’t give up on life.”

He scoffed. She didn’t know how much he tried to give up. But he was never able to do it. He had had plenty of opportunity to, but when it came down to it, he could never pull the trigger. 

She must have seen something in his face because she followed with “You don’t give up on other people, even after they’re gone. I believe in you, and that’s why I wanted you on this ship. The other choices Phil brought to me were plenty capable of being a CMO, but you were the only one passionate to be ours. 

“Remember those kids that were rescued from Maria Vi? That’s why I wanted you. You worked yourself to exhaustion trying to find a cure for their Tala radiation. And in the end, all of them are still alive. Because you saved them. I want that dedication and passion on my ship.”

“And the others?” Bruce couldn’t help but want to know, “Will they trust me as much as you do?”

She not-exactly-smiled again. “Clint would let me throw him over a cliff if I told him someone would catch him. And he’d keep believing it even after he hit the ground below. Stark would grumble and make a big deal out of it, but we’ve worked together before. He’ll trust you too. I’m not so sure about the others. But we’re all here for a reason, Bruce.”

He looked up at his name. “Please not some ‘higher power’ talk now.”

“No, each of us made a personal decision to be here for a reason. We were looking for something and we trusted in Starfleet enough to think that they would provide it for us. Some of us have already found it. Some of us are still looking and waiting. What are you looking for Bruce?”

She patted him on the cheek. “You don’t have to come back in. But I plan to see you at the next staff development meeting. I’ll have someone drop off their notes from this one. 

She walked toward the door. “Bruce.”

He looked back at her.

“oH nuv nuq nej chaH not Sovbe' vItu.”

He recognized the language. “Klingon.”

“It means ‘Those who do not know what they're looking for never find it.’ Well that’s the more poetic translation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was so hard to not write “six and a half pairs of eyes.”   
> Also Trek Wikis are my favorite thing ever right now.  
> I used the Bing Klingon translator. There was no way I could translate that myself and I wanted to use Romulan, but that failed. So.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a butt-ton harder than I expected it to be.... ONWARD


End file.
